6.16.2009

Carpet, cabling, leaks, squirrels & electrical!

Now, isn't that blog title exciting! Bet'cha can't wait to read this one. :)
We've had a VERY productive last few weeks!! The installation of carpet was our first BIG project. What a HUGE difference it made!!
BEFORE - Ugly, stained & unstretchedOld comes up, ready for new!
Padding goes down...
Ready for cutting! To remove the roll from their van, the installation guys tied a fire hose around the carpet roll, hooked the other end to a tree and drove the van away... I was a little nervous they would hurt the carpet, but it only damaged a small corner, which wasn't used anyway. :)
Installation in process
Stretched and vacuumed! I love it!
I love the pattern and texture to it!
Peter spent one evening after work removing all the unnecessary cabling from the house & sealing the holes they drilled to mount it...
Remember this leak? Here's where water was getting in... The crack has since been sealed and we're hoping for no more moisture in our bedroom walls now!! :)
...And remember these (see the end of the linked post) unwelcome critters that were squatting in our attic? Well, Peter found out how they were getting in. They ripped the shingles back and chewed through the plywood!! Squirrels sure are destructive little creatures!! Peter has "disposed" of five of them now!
Of course, they couldn't be content with just ONE hole in the roof! They chewed through two separate places! Ugh.
Might as well give ya' a view from our roof while we're up here. :)
Our friends Ken and Liesl came over last weekend to help move the heavy furniture upstairs (ie, a tempurpedic CA King bed that weighs a TON) and rearrange the furniture downstairs into a livable space!!
Finally where it should be after sleeping in the living room for three weeks. :)
More squirrel destruction! All electrical cabling that ran through the attic they chewed through. It's a miracle this house hadn't burned down before now!
Here's our temporary, safe solution! After assessing the damage to the electrical, Peter disconnected all the wiring that ran through the attic and just connected the outlets inside the house for now. Now we won't have to worry about burning up in our sleep!
Remember the leak in our bedroom? Not-so-funny story to go along with that one now! Last Sunday a.m., we're soundly sleeping (note, the hole wasn't covered at this point) and some insulation falls out of the hole. We both think, no-big-deal, it's probably just come loose from the fan blowing... back to sleep. Then scratching. Wake up & look over to see a squirrel head peeking into our room! AAAH. Peter runs downstairs to grab the "squirrel remediator". Meanwhile, I watch as squirrel #1 jumps across the hole to the other side and scurries off into the deep dark depths of the attic. Mind you, my eyes are still peeled on the hole & I'm milliseconds away from screaching when squirrel #2 decides to make his lovely presence known as well. However, S#2 is not as acrobatic as S#1 and when he tries to jump across the hole he... Doesn't. Quite. Make. It. He's HANGING from one little paw from the ceiling sheetrock in our bedroom!!! S#2 frantically (at this point he's as freaked out as I am) whips his tail back and forth until he can swing his rear end back up into the attic & scampers off. Meanwhile, Peter climbs up into the attic and works his magic. You should probably ask him about it sometime. :) That is also a very exciting story.
Yahoo for organized closets (as much as they can be at this stage) and not having to pull our next outfit out of a box!
HIS...
HERS...
Drumroll... LIGHTS!!
Our bedroom is quite a sizable space but had only ONE switch which turned on ONE outlet in the entire bedroom. Talk about inconvenient. Not any more!! :) We're installed four can lights in the bedroom, and they are SOOO nice!! It's lovely to have light in there at night now.
Tracing the holes...
Here we have the COOLEST tool I've seen in a long time. (Right up there with this one). $20 at Lowe's gets you this handy attachment. It's a serrated blade that spins in a circle (when attached to your Dewalt drill) with a plastic tray underneath it to catch the drywall dust and the hole that you just cut out. Awesome eh?
Here's a demonstration in case you're unclear as to how it worked, even after my very precise, detailed explanation. :)

Perfect circle! (he had drywall dust in his eyes and could still smile - quite the multi-tasker my hubby is!)
Just because it deserves it's own picture... :)
Holes cut, ready for can lights! The lights are installed, functioning and beautiful now, I just haven't photographed them yet... you can look forward to seeing those in a later post.
That's all for tonight folks!!! Can't wait to have some company soon!!

4 comments:

Aunt Renee said...

Awesome Missy...thanks for sharing!!! Great home you are making from this house.

Jeff and Marissa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeff and Marissa said...

So...are there holes in your roof now from the remediator? LOL. Life sure is an adventure!

Diana said...

Wow!! Aren't you just the busy beavers of Virginia... Wonderful progress you've made. I love the squirrel antics - gave me a great visual leading to a hearty chuckle! Won't you miss those little guys dangling from your ceiling at midnight?? :)

Nice job you're doing son-o-mine!